Cliff Deal Hinges on Senators White House Meeting Ends With Expressions of Cautious Optimism From Both Sides on Negotiations By JANET HOOK and CAROL E. LEE

WASHINGTONThe job of averting year-end tax increases and spending cuts landed squarely on the Senate, whose leaders said Friday they would launch a last-ditch weekend effort to avert the so-called fiscal cliff.

President Barack Obama met with all four congressional leaders in an hourlong meeting in the Oval Office to review an increasingly narrow range of options.

He later said he was "modestly optimistic" a deal could be reached, echoing comments from the top Democrat and Republican in the Senate.

"We had a good meeting down at the White House and we are engaged in discussions in the hopes that we can come forward as early as Sunday" with a plan, said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.). "We'll be working hard to try to see if we can get there in the next 24 hours," he said, adding he was "hopeful and optimistic."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) agreed the meeting was "constructive." In a warning that seemed aimed at lawmakers in both parties, he said, "whatever we come up with is going to be imperfect."

Mr. Obama said Messrs. McConnell and Reid have the weekend to reach and pass a deal.

In a move meant to pressure Republicans, Mr. Obama asked Mr. Reid and House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) to bring up a bill to extend income-tax rates for income under $250,000 and unemployment-insurance benefits if Senate leaders can't reach an agreement. "The hour for immediate action is here, it is now," he said.

EVERYBODY, including the rats, knows that the meaningless, drop-in-the-bucket tax hike on “the rich” does next to nothing to address America’s debt and deficit and is, rather, a purely symbolic concession demanded by the rats for the sole purpose of dividing and ultimately destroying the GOP. The rats need the GOP to abandon its most consistent and important core principle and agree to a tax hike - - ANY tax hike - - and then they will beat the GOP to death. The American public will never believe the Republicans again, and the party will die.

This is why Ubanga wouldn’t bite on the “close loopholes and cap deductions” crap in lieu of a definite rate hike. Even though the revenues would be about the same, with the “close loopholes and cap deductions” plan the Republicans would be able to talk out both sides of their mouth when trying to convince the ignorant chattering class that they didn’t raise taxes. Ubanga wants something more concrete, something the Republicans can’t lie their way out of.

The Rinos and the Rats will form a coalition in the Senate to screw us
again. Same with the House. Pelosi will provide the Rat votes needed
to screws us there.
May the 2014 election be a pox on both parties.
Throw all the bums out election on both sides.

ha ha ha... the senate is actually going to vote on something. Incredible

who cares about whether this is a win for Boehner it is a circus and Americans win nothing but higher taxes and more regulation while politicians pat themselves on the back until they can retire to their various million dollar jobs as lobbyists

9
posted on 12/28/2012 5:27:35 PM PST
by longfellowsmuse
(last of the living nomads)

North Korea is what brought Obama back to the table. He knows he can’t let the defense cuts occur in the face of intercontinental ballistic capability in North Korea.The Republicans should force him to keep and make permanent all of the current tax rates. He can’t let the cuts go through and then come back and argue for a huge increase in anti-ballistic missile technology. It wouldn’t be good for the caliphate or any other supra-national grouping you could name, U.S. security aside.

Ubama was re-elected President of the Democrats of the United States of America - - congratulations to him. I'm sure he feels pretty good about that, invincible even, and that's probably why he looks so arrogant these days and figures he can issue threats and act with impunity like a bully. Well, I sure hope somebody has the balls to clue that scumbag Ubama in that his Chicago thug way of doing things just isn't going to fly with a Republican House. Nobody likes to be bullied.

He also needs to be told flat out that if he wants more money confiscated from working, taxpaying, traditional American families (the "Republican base") in order to continue buying the votes of the ignorant moocher class (the "Democrat base"), then he's first going to have to get a Democrat House elected.

No, I am not holding my breath that any Republican has the balls to talk to the scumbag Ubama in a language he understands.

Oh well... Let's all limber up so we can grab our ankles. Here comes a "deal".

The Leftists in Congress have no intention of not going over the cliff. Failure to prevent massive tax hikes means lots more money for them to abuse. The current situation is “either we come to an agreement or you give us everything we want.”

Really? Are we back to this silly populist sounding nonsense? This "throw all the bums out" stuff has never worked. It's a meaningless statement. If you throw a Republican out, you're going to get a Democrat who is more liberal. Period. There are no candidates from any other party's that are going to win these seats. It's either Republican or Democrat. If you throw a Republican out, you get a Democrat. If you throw a Democrat out you get a Republican. If you have a "throw all the bums out election" the House would switch to Democrat control and the Senate to Republicans which would result in no meaningful change.

The Senate already has a backlog of House passed bills on hand they can use to modify with all sorts of bizarre notions and mind bending claptrap ~ that’s the way they’ve always done it ~ they’ll do it again.

North Korea has rockets that can reach Alaska and Hawaii. It is just conceivable an NK launch on either state could result in plenty of impetus to overthrow the Obamugabe regime here, and crack the Democrat party in two!

Whether Barry can realize such things or not his handlers certainly can.

Right, ‘cuz re-electing 97% of the same people have done SUCH a wonder?

So, no Rep = instant Dem? Damn, the 2-party cartel really gives out the kook-aid by the gallon. If people actually did their research and demanded a REAL debate/election, you’d see more 3rd party, like there should be.

The ‘lesser of two evils’ BS still doesn’t fly for the more open minded around here. Say howdy to the GOPe plantation bosses for me; but they sure as shit ain’t doing anyone any favors these days.

Doesn't happen that way. The system was designed by Thomas Jefferson. The objective is to win in single member districts. To win you need at least 50% + 1 vote.

The first guy to come up with a political party that can figure out how to win will sweep all before him. Then, an opposition made up of a consortium of the losers will form their own political party. They will try to get 50% + 1 vote.

This will go back and forth for decades.

Both of the major parties are simply coalitions of groups that share some interests in common. Change occurs as coalition members change ~ which is why minority parties never really get much beyond the organizing stage. Virtually all minority parties in American history have been focused on single issues ~ which pretty well excludes their getting involved in coalition politics.

Getting beyond that primary political lesson, we have several layers of politics. There's the Presidency, the Senate, the House, the states ~ with their Governors and legislatures, and local or municipal bodies with, in general a mayor, and a council ~ and there are school boards, etc.

In virtually every case there's a single member district, and in every case there are two local party organizations ~ which in some cases are pretty weak, but something is there, somewhere.

The Whig party was the first large scale party to challenge the Democrats. They ended on a sour note when they ran out of ways to continue compromising on slavery. They were replaced by the Republican party which was made up of anti-tax, pro-commerce, anti-slavery Whigs ~ and some Whig state and district parties were brought in whole and unchanged by the Republicans. The remainder consisted mostly of the Abolitionist movement which was never quite able to become a party itself.

In the wake of the Whig disaster there were some smaller regional parties with narrower interests but by the end of the Civil War they'd pretty much disappeared or were absorbed by the Victorious Republicans.

Currently our major internal Republican party problem is the development of a major faction that is not devoted to any of our myriad of coalition partner's interests, but instead focuses on the mechanics of winning ~ including fund raising and polling. We call them the GOP-e. They've lost 11 major Presidential races, a good myriad of Senate races, and would have kept us as a minority party in the House except that state based movements grew up to challenge the old order and take over the House. We currently have 30 Governors and most state legislatures.

The GOP-e has failed to demonstrate over the last two Presidential races any reason for its continued existence.

Alas, they control the RNC.

My proposal for eliminating the GOP-e is simple ~ create a NEW RNC and invite the state parties to send representatives to the NEW RNC ~ and cease sending representatives to the old RNC!

Certain persons involved in GOP-e activities would simply be banned. I think we can come up with a list in any 10 minute period if we think about it even casually. Obviously all those who advocated nominating a guy who is now said by his own eldest son to have not wanted to win would be on that list.

Hey idiot, we didn't just "throw all the bums out" in 2010, we voted the Democrats out and voted the Republicans in. You see how that works numbskull? Had conservatives just voted to "throw all the bums out" we would have lost lots of Republican seats to Democrats in red areas (since that stupid idea entails we vote against our own Republican incumbents) and would not have taken over the House.

So just to clear up your ignorance, 2010 was NOT a "throw all the bums out" year. It was a throw all the Democrats out and vote Republicans in year.

Hey idiot, we didn't just "throw all the bums out" in 2010, we voted the Democrats out and voted the Republicans in. You see how that works numbskull? Had conservatives just voted to "throw all the bums out" we would have lost lots of Republican seats to Democrats in red areas (since that stupid idea entails we vote against our own Republican incumbents) and would not have taken over the House.

The bums are disproportionately Dem...except for some moles and GOP-e types.

Troll.

36
posted on 12/28/2012 9:14:36 PM PST
by grey_whiskers
(The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)

The bums are disproportionately Dem...except for some moles and GOP-e types.

Listen you dolt, before you comment you might take a few moments to at least understand the subject and what the conversation is about.

tenmountainman suggested we throw all the bums out on both sides. I pointed out that it was a terrible idea which never goes anywhere, and that if we voted all incumbents (bums) out we'd actually end up voting more liberal Democrats in. In 2010 we did not just vote all the bums out, we voted Democrats out and kept our Republican incumbents in.

Now perhaps you're caught up and can quit with the diarrhea of the mouth.

Great. JUST GREAT. You can't get permissions from your Dad to drive the car so you just ask Mom. The Senate is the origination point of this detestable, Lose/Lose position know as sequestration and other egregious errors impersonating sound law. The only difference between the House negotiating for this deal and the Senate negotiating is that Mitch The Bitch McConnell will not have as much volume as he folds and he won't have to have a jar of Vaseline since he is a KY user.Who gets protected? The fag cat donors, the unions, and the tax consumers. Who gets hurt? Everybody else. I hope the Republican resist compromise of their few remaining principles.

38
posted on 12/28/2012 11:00:13 PM PST
by cashless
(Obama told us he would side with Muslims if the political winds shifted in an ugly direction. Ready?)

obozo was elected representative of the Communist/Socialist/Marxist/Revolutionary/Jihadist/de-mocratic Parties. He’s not my president, he is the occupier in OUR White House....resist, delay, deny, obstruct.

This is a win for Boehner. He has been saying for two weeks that the House already passed tax cuts and the Senate needs to act.

A fatal mistake by Boner. If the House never passes a bill, the Senate has no chance to amend it, as they surely will. As soon as that happens and the amended bill is sent back to the House, watch the RINOs and the rest of the do nothing republicans cave.

The KEY to this process of caving under cover, is the initial House passage of a bill. Game, set, match again. Republicans continue their historic losing streak.

41
posted on 12/29/2012 4:58:18 AM PST
by Founding Father
(The Pedophile moHAMmudd (PBUH---Pigblood be upon him))

Good for Boehner for going home and staying there
Pelosi looked like a drunk, dazed when she walked out the WH yesterday, I swear she is suffering from dementia
Yet the economy of the US rests in the hands of her and Harry Reid and the petulant emotional-age 14-yr old potus

Sorry- regardless of label, govt gets bigger, more intrusive and the country becomes more socialist. Good luck in the republican plantation, where you are a vote to be earned by saying certain things-a curiosity to be made fun of.

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